Hilton Beijing Capital Airport Nightmare

Level 2 Member

Tried to book a room for my parents in law. They come from a 3rd tier Chinese city, which is like saying they come from Podunk, IL (sorry IL people). They've never been out of their province, never been on a bullet train, never been on a plane. And they will be carrying a large chunk of their life's savings for us to invest for them sewn into their clothes.

So I decided to book them a room at the Hilton. What the heck, it's only money, and these hard working people deserve something nice in their lives. And if you can't trust security at the Hilton, there is no hotel security you can trust.

The room costs what my mother in law makes in 2 weeks working 10 hour days. And it goes without saying they don't have a credit card. So I need to prepay the room. To do that, I need to deal with the hotel directly. They want to send me an authorization form to fill out and send back with a copy of my passport, and the front and back of the credit card.

Yeah, I have a long set of my own travel stories, from before miles and points.

There was a time I sent out a bunch of underwear to wash Chengdu. Came back, and I put it on, and by the end of the day I stunk to high heaven. Inquired at the front desk, only to be told that "soap costs extra". I had to laugh.